Harvesting rope grown edible seaweed - Photo: Hans J MarterA SMALL family owned business in Shetland is banking on the growing trend for a healthy lifestyle by diversifying into edible seaweed.
Described by many as the new superfood, seaweed has been eaten by coastal communities for centuries, and is part of the staple diet in countries such as Japan, China and Korea.
But algaculture could well become a new industry sector in Scotland too with more than 100 species growing in the sea around us, most of which are edible.
Ten years ago, Margaret and Michael Blance of Böd Ayre Products re-invented a long lost tradition when they started collecting seaweed and turning it into natural fertilisers which today are widely used in agriculture and gardening.
Now they have gone a step further and have set up a small seaweed farm for sea lettuce, sugar kelp and dulse to grow naturally on ropes, near their home on the Lunna peninsula.
Margaret Blance said they have embarked on a steep learning curve on how to grow, harvest and market the vegetables of the sea, adding that the initial responses from customers have been very positive.
She said there were many good reasons to eat more seaweed: “The more we researched, the more we realised what a good source of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and bio-stimulants it was.
“But it is only more recently that seaweed has become so highly valued in many other aspects in the Western world, other than plant food and animal feed supplements.
“Seaweed is valuable for human consumption, in medicines and cosmetics.”
She added: “The main market for edible seaweed is the herbal health industry, with more and more people becoming aware of its age-old benefits.
“Seaweed has ten times more calcium than a glass of milk, more vitamins and minerals than any land produced vegetable, and the ability to protect against, and to prevent disease.”
The seaweed is harvested by cutting it from the ropes and then thoroughly washed. Böd Ayre’s edible seaweed is available as a fresh salad or dried and ground to be used as a seasoning or substitute for salt.
The company has managed to build a small but growing customer base for its edible seaweed and also sells it via their website at: www.seaweedproducts.co.uk
Böd Ayre’s seaweed is also used by a local artisan cheese maker Caroline Henderson, and as an ingredient for oatcakes and by a bakery based in Forres.
Local chef and catering lecturer at Shetland College, Glynn Wright, has been experimenting with seaweed for the last year.
He said he has developed seafood dishes such as steamed scallops wrapped in sea lettuce, served with a seaweed beurre blanc, or pan fried scallops on a base of seaweed salad.
“I can see seaweed going to high class restaurants; it is something different and unusual. It certainly has a lot of vitamins and minerals in it and tastes as good as a seasoning.
“It has a variety of uses in the kitchen and I am sure, as time goes on, more and more dishes will be made out of it,” he said.
